Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Battle for Kydea: Unit types & details

Battle for Kydéa was initially designed to be played with four main unit or character types, but you are encouraged to design others as well! How many of each you use in a game is up to you to decide, based upon how many people are playing, how many figures you're able to build, and how long you'd like the game to last. Feel free to experiment, and make adjustments to suit your needs & desires!

The Kydean warrior is your basic foot soldier. He marches out into the field, shoots things, and tries not to get shot. His armor coverage is good, but not great, and he carries a single handheld weapon with a respectable firing rate and excellent accuracy.

Warrior gameplay: A warrior can shoot any enemy it can see, once per turn. Exact weapon damage is determined by the dice roll.

The very name of the Lifter class betrays its basic history and purpose. These units are heavily armored and their physical strength is unequaled, but they were originally designed to load & unload cargo and assist with construction projects. Today, most of them act as heavy weapons platforms. They are loyal and obedient, but not independently very smart, relatively speaking. While they can aim & fire their sholder-mounted guns like you would expect, their ability to hit targets reliably leaves a lot to be desired. As a result, Lifter weapons are always augmented with gyro-stabilized targeting servos, though for this system acquire a target lock, said target must be first painted by a smarter, more precise unit on the field.

Lifter gameplay: Each turn, a Lifter can shoot twice. However, Lifters have extremely inaccurate fire, and a dice roll is used to determine whether each shot hits its target. By default, you must roll a 4 to hit your target. Roll once for each of your two weapons. When you roll a 4, you hit with 4 points of damage; otherwise, you miss with that weapon. If you have a Scout on the field, your Lifter can execute assisted artillery-style shots, even if the Lifter cannot see the target. Assisted shots involve firing both weapons as usual, but dice rolls of 4 and up will hit (so 4, 5, and 6). See more on this under details for the Scout. Note that a Lifter can only shoot once in a turn, whether it's blind or assisted fire. Like all units, Lifters only get one movement dice roll per unit per turn.

A Scout transforms a bumbling, practically blind-firing Lifter into a devastating offensive asset. Agile & quick-thinking, a single Scout can direct fire from all Lifters in the theater of operation, resulting in an overall average of slightly more than one hit per Lifter per turn. Sweetening the deal even further, a Scout carries his own standard-issue rifle with a full ammunition energy reserve, just like a Warrior. The downside is that Scouts wear less armor than any other type of unit, making them very vulnerable to enemy fire. As a result, scouts spend more time in much deeper cover than their brothers in arms.

Scout gameplay: Each turn, a Scout can fire its weapon at any enemy in sight, like a Warrior. The Scout can also use its targeting laser to call in assisted artillery-style fire from one friendly Lifter on the field. Any enemy unit that the Scout can see can be designated as a target, and the firing Lifter does not need to see the target, as the shot is arched high through the sky. Assisted Lifter shots follow the hit/miss/damage rules described under the Lifter's unit details.

The Kydéans have very science- and fact-based cultures, but there is a realm of dark arts, of sorts, with which only a select sub-class of highly trained elites can dabble. The harnessing and manipulation of what we Earthlings call vacuum energy is the specialty of Kydean High Priests. After many years of study, development, and practice in scattered remote locations, High Priests become integral parts of any battle force with their seemingly magical capabilities of both offense and defense. With only a very brief restorative rest between each action, a High Priest can vaporize an enemy armor plate, dissipate a incoming weapon blast (regardless of its target), or teleport a friendly unit to any location within sight. Their distinctive "antennae" are directly-connected implants that amplify their abilities. They are also well-armored.

High Priest gameplay: Each turn, a High Priest can only execute one type of action. The zero-point energy blast acts just like firing a normal weapon. You can shoot it at any enemy target your Priest can see, and hit/miss/damage is determined by a dice roll. With the Teleport action, you can move any unit the Priest can see (friend or foe!) to any location on the battlefield that your Priest can see. The Deflect Damage action is somewhat like healing, except you simply prevent the damage from occurring in the first place. The High Priest can cast Deflect Damage twice per turn. For each cast, roll your dice to determine how much damage you can deflect. The result of the roll is mostly handled like rolling for weapon damage, except in reverse:

Miss -- fail to deflect

Deflect 2pts damage

Deflect up to 3pts damage

Deflect up to 4pts damage

Deflect up to 5pts damage

(Deflect up to 6pts damage and roll again) or Deflect a killing shot, don't roll again

After each successful roll for Deflect Damage, you may place an appropriate destroyed armor piece back onto your unit, or re-activate a unit that was thought killed, based on the rules above.

Little is known about this unit type as they are quite uncommon and are rumored to come as mercenaries from the islands. Based on what I've been able to gather, they are able to negate some incoming ranged weapon fire, though with less frequency than High Priests, and they lack any powers of teleportation. They are, however, able to do limited offensive damage with their zero-point technology, in addition to operating a standard-issue rifle.

Warrior-Priest gameplay: Due to the rarity of this unit, precise written rules have not been discovered. See details of the Warrior and High Priest to see if you can piece together the probable combined rules.

OthersThroughout the years, numerous other types of battle units have been employed with limited success, including suicide berserkers, medics, dwarf pistoleers, and various melee specialists.